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Gameportal
Gameportal 'Overview' The Gameportal was a handheld gaming device, created by LA!LA! Arts (then Productions) and in cooperation with Film Gate studios (then owned by Rokas Valadka) for design in 2007. The first game released was Super Barry,a play on Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers. Later games include Film Gate's The Thing: The Game, The Mommy Game and Zombyz, which used an updated version of the engine for The Thing. LA!LA! Games released several games for it, including Super Barry 2, Fightsmash and Blob Drop. 'Design' The original Gameportal featured two screens and a touch pad. However it was capable of multi-player,it did not feature a multi-player connection slot. The top of the system featured a Gameportal logo and the word "Gameportal". Gameportal+ 'Overview' The Gameportal+ was an improved version of the original Gameportal, released by LA!LA! and Film Gate shortly before Film Gate was sold over and Rokas left the company in 2009. It was completely backwards-compatable with the full library of Gameportal games. The big focus for the new model was multiplayer, with such games making great use of the new Multiplayer Connection Slot (or MCS) as LA!LA! Kart, Zombyz Nitro, Shootfield (A one-off from Fillsim Games) and Fightsmash 2. 'Design' The Gameportal+ featured two screens of the same size and shape of the Gameportal's. However, this time a second touchpad was added to the right side, allowing for twin-stick style play without any interference with the image on-screen, allowing for more immersive gameplay. This especially helped Zombyz Nitro, making it easier to play and feel more ergonomic. The biggest new feature was the MCS, allowing for multiplayer gaming. This helped Fightsmash 2 incredibly, allowing for competitive matches to show off your skills. Zombyz Nitro again served as a great showcase of the systems capabilities, with both co-op and deathmatch multiplayer modes. However, these multiplayer modes were not compatable with the new dual-touchpad controls due to technical limitations. Gameportal Ultra 'Overview' The Gameportal Ultra was released in 2010 as a successor to the GP+, released by LA!LA!. Because of Filmgate, the main design studio for the GP series left, the GPU didn't suffer much change from the previous GP+. LA!LA! owned Filmgate at the time, so they released Zombyz Infection for the GPU, with multiplayer with twin-pad controls, and a new career mode, which also featured co-op. Fightsmash was brought back with the release of Fightsmash 3. This title featured more characters and stages, along with better controls for combos. LA!LA! Kart Ultra was released, to take advantage of the larger side-scrolling levels, and Super Barry Ultra was brought back for the same reason. 'Design' The Gameportal Ultra featured two large, widescreen resolution screens, claimed to be 70% bigger than the original GP and GP+'s screens. Again, it featured two touchpads around the bottom screen. This time, the touchpads were slightly bigger than the screen, fixing a complaint about the original and + that the touchpads felt too short. The screens had a larger BG Slot, meaning the levels could scroll farther. It also featured BG Slots on the sides of the system, allowing for longer sideways-scrolling levels. The biggest new feature was again the MCS, which had a complex mechanism inside it to allow for twin-pad play in multiplayer, and for multiplayer images to be shown on the top screen. Gameportal Pro Overview The Gameportal Pro was a complete redesign for the console, released in mid-2011. Most of the games from the previous GP consoles were brought back, with titles such as Fightsmash Pro, The Mommy Game: The Return, LA!LA! Kart 3, Super Barry Planet and a new spin-off of LA!LA!'s Fantasy Worlds series, Fantasy Worlds: Portable. However, for this generation no Zombyz games were released. LA!LA! said this was because they were unfamiliar with the hardware. The system was the most popular of the GP consoles, which meant the high-quality MCS was put to good use. 'Design' The Gameportal Pro was a completely new, unfamiliar design for LA!LA!. The Gameportal Pro was a short, long, oval. It had no top screen, but in compensation for this it was able to have a multi-layered screen, two extra-precise touchpads and a high-speed, presice MCS allowing for advanced multiplayer modes. Gameportal AER 'Overview' The Gameportal AER was announced in February 2013 by LA!LA! to be a revival of the GP series for 2014. One prototype currently exists, along with a test copy of LA!LA! Kart 4.